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Site Guide

The City of Harrisonburg is pleased to announce the launch of a redesigned website at HarrisonburgVA.gov.

The previous website design was launched in 2012 and was not optimized for users visiting the website from mobile or tablet devices. In the past few years, the number of visitors to the city website from mobile or tablet devices has been steadily increasing. In 2015, approximately 45 percent of traffic to the city website was from a mobile or tablet device. This signaled it was time to invest in the redesign to make the website experience easy and responsive no matter what device or browser size the visitor was using.The new design is the biggest change for the site, as well as making the entire website secure using HTTPS. The use of HTTPS is an extra step for website security in keeping information sent between the browser and website encrypted so that only the intended recipient can understand it.

Many of the basic features of the city website remained the same including, a scrolling banner of events and news on the homepage, the city calendar, online forms for city services, a search tool, as well as the use of a free content management system.

All of the work on this site was done in-house by the City’s Information Technology Department.

Search Tips

One of the easiest ways to find information on this site is to use the search box located in the menu bar of each page. If your first search is unsuccessful, use fewer words or simplify the search.Also, be sure to check your spelling, it is easy to mistype or misspell a word or phrase, and often misspellings will yield unsuccessful results.

Or, if you still aren't finding the information you are looking for, try the A-Z Index which lists all the pages of our site in alphabetical order.

If you a searching for a Parks and Recreation program, class, or activity, try the WebTrac Search.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) allows you to subscribe to updates on HarrisonburgVA.gov. You will need a RSS reader application or online service to browse, open, and subscribe to RSS feeds. There are many free readers available in order to subscribe to our feeds; examples are Bloglines, Google Reader, Mozilla Firefox, and NewsGator.

For a full list of the feeds on HarrisonburgVA.gov, visit the RSS Feeds page or use the RSS icons found throughout our site.

City Events Calendar

The calendar on this website lists events in the City hosted by or related to city departments. These events can be filtered according to type, so if you only wanted to see Parks and Recreation events, you would apply that filter and the calendar would only list events related to Parks and Recreation. You can also sort the calendar according to month, week, day, or year using the links at the top of the calendar page. Or if you prefer, you can also navigate using the previous or next buttons.

You can also import city events to your own calendar using the calendar icon located at the bottom of the calendar. First, select the filter of which events you want to import, or leave the filter set to any, then scroll to the bottom of the calendar and select the icon. This will ask you if you want to download an .ics file, save the file, and locate the file on your computer. Open the calendar program on your computer or on your browser (Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar, etc.), and find the settings of this program to import the .ics file. Once imported, you will have the full list of city events on your own personal calendar, though you may want to update the import monthly for the latest events.

PDF File Links

PDF file links can be identified by the PDF icon:

Some browsers will automatically open PDFs within the browser. However, the City recommends saving the file to your computer and opening PDF files with Adobe Reader® to ensure the file is viewed properly. Install Adobe Reader® for free.

Using Fillable PDFs:Some PDF files on HarrisonburgVA.gov have fillable form fields. These forms may be filled out on your computer and then either emailed or printed to be mailed or turned in to the appropriate department.Fillable forms may not show up properly in all browsers. If you experience problems viewing a PDF with form fields, simply save the PDF file to your computer (right click the link then select "Save target as"/"Save link as") and open it using Adobe Reader.

If you do not have Microsoft PowerPoint, you can use the PowerPoint Viewer which allows you to view PowerPoint documents for free.

External Links

HarrisonburgVA.gov contains links to external websites and resources. Links will be added and removed on HarrisonburgVA.gov at the City's discretion and without notice. External links will be marked with an icon and will open in a new window so that you can easily return to HarrisonburgVA.gov.

Email Links

Email links can be identified by the email icon:

For the link to work, you must be using an email client/reader on your computer. If you don't have an email client, you can copy and paste the email address when composing your email.

Image Links

Image file links can be identified by the image icon:

Browsers can open up the full size image file for viewing or downloading.